Hypervisor device and method for failure mitigation of a virtual machine

Abstract

A hypervisor device mitigates failure of a virtual machine (VM) by masking an interrupt request (IRQ) of another VM of lower priority. A hypervisor device for failure mitigation of a VM is configured to: operate a first VM; operate a second VM, where the first VM has a higher priority level than the second VM; determine an interference parameter indicating a magnitude of interference of the second VM on the first VM; and mask at least one IRQ relating to the second VM based on the interference parameter to mitigate a failure of the first VM.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A hypervisor device for failure mitigation of a virtual machine (VM), the hypervisor device comprising processor, wherein the hypervisor device is configured to:
 operate a first VM;   operate a second VM, wherein the first VM has a higher priority level than the second VM;   determine an interference parameter indicating a magnitude of interference of the second VM on the first VM; and   mask at least one interrupt request (IRQ) relating to the second VM based on the interference parameter to mitigate a failure of the first VM.   
     
     
         2 . The hypervisor device according to  claim 1 , wherein the priority level comprises a safety integrity level. 
     
     
         3 . The hypervisor device according to  claim 1 , further configured to determine the interference parameter based on a performance counter associated with the first VM and/or based on a performance counter associated with the second VM. 
     
     
         4 . The hypervisor device according to  claim 1 , further configured to:
 obtain a first relationship indicating an influence of a performance counter type and/or a performance counter value on the magnitude of interference of the second VM with the first VM; and   determine the interference parameter based on the first relationship.   
     
     
         5 . The hypervisor device according to  claim 1 , further configured to:
 obtain a second relationship indicating an influence of the at least one IRQ relating to the second VM on the magnitude of interference of the second VM with the first VM; and   determine the interference parameter based on the second relationship.   
     
     
         6 . The hypervisor device according to  claim 5 , further configured to:
 obtain a first group of IRQs; and   select the at least one IRQ from the first group of IRQs.   
     
     
         7 . The hypervisor device according to  claim 6 , further configured to obtain the first group of IRQs based on the second relationship. 
     
     
         8 . The hypervisor device according to  claim 6 , further configured to:
 obtain a second group of IRQs; and   select the at least one IRQ from the second group of IRQs if an attempt to mitigate the failure of the first VM based on masking an IRQ from the first group of IRQs fails.   
     
     
         9 . The hypervisor device according to  claim 8 , further configured to obtain the second group of IRQs based on the second relationship. 
     
     
         10 . The hypervisor device according to  claim 8 , wherein masking an IRQ from the second group of IRQs leads to a higher degradation of quality of service (QoS) of the second VM than masking the IRQ from the first group of IRQs. 
     
     
         11 . The hypervisor device according to  claim 6 , wherein the magnitude of interference of the second VM with the first VM for all IRQs in the first group of IRQs is below a predefined threshold, and/or wherein the magnitude of interference of the second VM with the first VM for all IRQs in the second group of IRQs is above a predefined threshold. 
     
     
         12 . The hypervisor device according to  claim 1 , wherein the interference parameter indicates at least one of: central processing unit (CPU) interference, Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) interference, memory interference, input/output (I/O) interference, cache-miss interference, network interference, storage interference, or bus interference. 
     
     
         13 . The hypervisor device according to  claim 1 , wherein the first VM is the VM with a highest priority level operated by the hypervisor device. 
     
     
         14 . A method for failure mitigation of a virtual machine (VM), wherein the method comprises the steps of:
 operating, by a hypervisor device, a first VM;   operating, by the hypervisor device, a second VM, wherein the first VM has a higher priority level than the second VM;   determining, by the hypervisor device, an interference parameter indicating a magnitude of interference of the second VM on the first VM; and   masking, by the hypervisor device, at least one interrupt request (IRQ) relating to the second VM based on the interference parameter to mitigate a failure of the first VM.   
     
     
         15 . A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising a computer program comprising instructions which, when the computer program is executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the method according to  claim 14 .